EXTREME PLACES

Could you live on a steep mountain, cut off from the rest of the world? Or in an arid desert?

A brief conversational introduction asks readers to imagine themselves living in these and other challenging sites: a jungle, a mountain, an island. Laroche reminds us that in addition to survival skills, a certain attitude or emotional commitment is necessary, reflected in the comment of one resident of a remote Himalayan valley: “It’s too beautiful to leave.” For each place, a concise, engaging opening paragraph continues to invite readers to imagine themselves living there, mentioning some specific experiences, features, wildlife, or occupations that inhabitants might encounter. Vivid details bring a variety of cultures to life. Four smaller-type boxes then describe the geophysical environment, the residents, a “fascinating fact,” and human adaptation to the site. These places span the globe, including locations in the South Atlantic, North Africa, the Indian Ocean, Siberia, the Himalayas, the Andes, the South Pacific, and the Arabian Sea. Two final world maps pinpoint each of the 13 settlements. Cloth, mud, wood, and stone houses, as well as gers (Mongolian dwellings that can be easily transported), floating reed-mat huts, and human-altered caves come to life in dimensional layered paper. One page reveals six painstaking and detailed stages in creating Laroche’s precise, cut-paper relief collages. The author/illustrator concludes with a helpful list of selected sources.

A brilliant and informative introduction to humans’ architectural and social adaptability.